Capital New York

A new exhibit from MOMA's print collection investigates (and broadens) the meaning of the term 'print'

"The thing is to think about print not as a mode of fabrication ... but as a mode of distribution," said curator Christophe Cherix when we spoke prior to the show's opening: in a world of ever-accelerating social and technological change, he pointed out, print can be understood to mean any system that diffuses ideas across the cultural landscape. Many of the objects in the show present not as printed pages or artist prints, but as paintings or sculpture or some other iteration, clinging to “print-ness” only by way of their means of production or theoretical conceit. More

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By Ian Volner

New documentary 'The Pruitt-Igoe Myth' tells of the rise and fall of America's most infamous housing project

Pruitt-Igoe’s death by dynamite was a televised event seen by millions, and it seemed to confirm the belief by many that the country’s thirty-year experiment with social housing had ended in a complete failure. When the blasts went off, and the great facades prolapsed, few mourned their passing. More

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By Ian Volner

John Hill, celebrating New York one building at a time

John Hill was on a roll. It’s a John Hill roll, which is to say it rolls fairly quietly, and very smoothly. The 38-year-old architect, blogger, and author was in the McNally-Jackson bookstore in Soho on Monday night, treating a small audience to a voyage around the five boroughs by way of a slideshow based on his just-released Guide To Contemporary New York City Architecture (W.W. Norton). The crowd, a good mix of old and young, was predominantly local (evidence the accents during the Q&A session) and distinctly not design-world-looking (viz., dressed normally), and as the slides flipped past each new-built, glass-enclosed edifice, Hill gave a capsule-length taxonomy while listeners nodded and issued satisfied little noises of recognition. The Hearst Building: “Hmph.” 497 Greenwich: “Ahmpf.”

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By Ian Volner

Fair trade: The Pavilion of Art and Design angles for a piece of New York's crowded art-fair market

The debut function of the Pavilion of Arts and Design—the latest addition to New York’s already busy calendar of art fairs—was going full tilt, and all 52 exhibitors of 20th-century paintings and furniture were standing at the ready, in stall after well-appointed stall, even as the carpets were still being stapled to the floor of the old drill hall. Each paid between $30,000 and $50,000 for the privilege of being here, a big bet that this fair, and this space, would bring out the high rollers. More

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By Ian Volner